I baked bread yesterday. That sounds like a nice leisurely way to spend my time, but I baked three batches of oatmeal bread (8 large loaves, 3 small loaves), two batches of English muffin bread (was supposed to be 2 large loaves, 6 small loaves, but I managed to knock one of the large loaves off the top of my freezer where it was at the end of the rise and it turned upside down all over my kitchen floor), and maple pecan bread (9 mini loaves).
The maple pecan was a new recipe for me (hence the mini loaves). The recipe is a keeper. It is a subtle flavor combination of whole wheat, maple syrup, and toasted pecans in a yeast bread. I got the recipe from the book Bread from sourdough to rye by Linda Collister and I do thank her heartily for it. And she was right--in the serving suggestions she mentioned ham and cheese. Yes! Thinly sliced ham and provolone cheese was soooo good.
Part of the fun is juggling the schedule so that I can run my oven efficiently and get the difference rising times down and the baking pans washed and reused in the best way. And then there are the days when the dough is slower or faster to rise, throwing everything off. Since I'm doing this with only standard kitchen utensils, I haven't a hope of duplicating many bakery products, but each loaf is weighed so there is some standardization.
And why do I need all this bread you may ask. I take it to my former workplace and sell it to raise money for our Relay for Life team, which goes to the American Cancer Society. The oatmeal bread has been a consistent best seller for me, but I try to include a variety during the course of the month. I try to include a new recipe once or twice a month just to make things more interesting for me.

Baking Up a Storm

I baked bread yesterday--two kinds, Oatmeal Bread and Dilly Onion Bread. This is one of the things I enjoy doing. And since I live alone and don't really need lots of bread in the house, I take it to the library where I worked before I retired and sell it. The money goes into the fund that the L.O.T.E. Relay for Life team has set up for the American Cancer Society.

I usually make 6 small loaves and 1 large of each recipe, but it varies according to what kind of bread I make.

Anyway, I got an exceptionally good do on both batches of bread. I'm always getting feedback (there are no shy people working at my library) about what worked and what didn't. It's a good thing I don't try to do this commercially, since I've had some loaves that were far from perfect and I can pick just when I want to bake.

I've started a biga to make some Italian bread later this week, probably tomorrow. I really need to get a bigger baking stone if I'm going to do much more of this. Hmmm, I wonder what baking in a wood-fired oven would be like. Just kidding.

Just finished reading Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks' book Hot Stuff. The title works so well on so many levels. I think Janet writes some of the best animals ever to appear in a romance. (Well, that sounds rather depraved. For those of you who don't read her books, no animals are harmed in the course of the novel.) Her pets all are the kinds of animals I would end up with--lovable doofuses. Okay, I'll admit it's not just the animals I read these books for. I'm always on the lookout for another Joe Morelli or Ranger, to switch to another of her books. Anyway, Hot Stuff is a fun hour read, with characters that are clearly related by type to the Stephanie Plum books.